Manoj Sinha - Alumni Profiles - People - Batten Institute

CEO and Founder of Husk Power Systems, Manoj Sinha (MBA ’09), is changing how power is made and distributed in India, and he is doing it by utilizing a bountiful natural resource - rice husks. Husk provides low-cost renewable power to remote rural communities across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa through the world’s largest fleet of solar hybrid minigrids.

Sinha and his Darden classmate, Chip Ransler (MBA '09), noticed a lack of power sources in the region, which significantly inhibited what communities were able to do after dark, and they set out to create a sustainable solution. The use of rice husks was critical as it allowed the company to be both eco-friendly and sustainable. “Clean technology was extremely important to us,” said Sinha. “We didn’t want to use coal or diesel to generate electricity.”

Since the creation of Husk Power Systems, they have gone on to expand, establishing the Husk Power University to educate future HPS employees and utilizing their own training curriculum to do so. 

Husk also actively encouraged entrepreneurship by showing the villagers how to use electricity to create side jobs and businesses around devices such as printers, water purifiers or ice cream makers. The company supported that by selling the villagers energy-efficient appliances on credit.

“When we install minigrids in a community,” said Sinha, “we look at what might be brought in as a set of entrepreneurial activities that will help people use electricity more productively and generate new income sources. That’s how our business model became successful.”

Sinha was recently featured in the Time 100 Climate issue as an Innovator, where his efforts in sustainable energy were highlighted.

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